„3 hours left“..that´s what it says on my Dashboard. I can´t believe my time here at Viikki is already over. I met the most lovely kind people who welcomed me with open arms and did the most fun work I can imagen doing at an internship. I really don´t want to leave yet but the plane to Stockholm takes off 15:45 and I guess I have to be on it 😦

To everyone I met: Thank you so much for everything, for welcoming me into your team and the great conversations. I hope I can experience the Finnish winter with all it´s snow soon and then I will come by and visit you all 🙂

Up until now it has been stressful and now it´s already Wednesday and I´ve the feeling I still have so much to do. I don´t know where time went.

I´ve been just finishing up my tasks at work, like the Open-Access-Wiki but I´ve also been working on filling and printing out the Europassform which has robbed my last nerve because it´s not working how it should be at all.

Anyways, yesterday (so Tuesday) I went with Tuija to the Urban Workshop in the City Centre. It´s part of the public library and related to Library 10 which I visited in my second week here in Helsinki (seems like a lifetime ago). The Urban Workshop is a place where anybody can come in and use all kinds of machines and programs, from sewing machines over T-shirt printers to Photoshop and the only thing you have to pay for in the end is the material you are using up.

3D-printer Vol. 2

3D-printer: do-it-yourself-kit

We mainly went there to use their 3D-printer. I bet you think that we printed something really fancy and special… well, no. Not really. We printed a small Charmander. Well alright, that was my Idea, Tuija didn´t even know what it is 😀 (just so you know, it´s a Pokemon).

I know, it´s uncool to take a picture of a Computerscreen…

It took the little guy about an hour to be done and now it´s safe and sound in my backpack waiting for it´s new home in Berlin (it´s actually a present for a friend, so I´m not going to keep it).

and here is it at his first (and hopefully not last) visit to subway:

Today I´m just going to pack up the rest of my stuff. Hopefully everything will fit in my suitcase.,.

Friday – I spend my day at Kaisa on the 7th floor with Kristiina, Marjo, Lisa and Mika, who told me all about Electronic Research Management Systems, Ebooks and Ejournals and their Activation and Access. It was a long and informative day with loads of stimulating (right word?!) conversation.

Afterwards I met Heli to go for a walk but it was already way to dark out so we went to grap a bite to eat (I was practically starving) at Zetor, this farm-style restaurant in the city center. It. was. so. cool!

Saturday & Sunday // Kuopio – I woke up really early to get on my bus to Kuopio. I should have worn more clothes because the bus was freezing cold. At least I had Wifi and was able to text and surf on the Web. 5 hours well spend 🙂

The hotel was quite fancy and after having a 5-minute dance party for myself I went outside to explore.

I don´t want to make this a detailed report so here´s the stuff: I went to the Nationalpark but was only there for 2 hours because Pujio-Torni was closed. I ate Kalakukko which is fish baked in a loaf od bread and quite delisicous. I went to the sauna and to a smoke sauna and afterwards jumped into a freezing cold lake (I don´t think anyone can make me do this again…).

I wasn´t able to try Karjalanpiirankka (karelian pie) and I´ve still to do that while I´m here! It looks so tasty…

Monday – I was in the National Repository Library today, the core reason of my little excursion to Kuopio. Sirpa and I talked for 2.5 hours about the functions,aim and purpose of the NRL and it´s prospective future. It´s such a misleading building though. From the outside it doesn´t look so big because it hosts other companies as well so you think it´s only takes up a small space but then you go inside and BAM! it hits you right in the face. It´s a huge storage room with boxes, shelves and trolleys everywhere. The employees there actually use scooters because of the vast distances… It was a great day and I got to see a different kind of library and different kind of work again.

When I got home I skyped for a little bit but I was so tired that I just fell on my bed after and fell asleep.

Tuesday – I was dead. I think I slept maybe 3 hours?! I would like to say that work went by in a heart beat and I could go home but I watched the clock and I think time stood still. Nontheless, I worked with Tuija on the ProjectNet video and we finally finished it. Now my voice can be heard on Youtube… Yay.

In the afternoon…well I slept. I slept until someone (you know who you are) called me on Skype and woke me up 😦

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday – I visited Terrko on Wednesday ( which is just the Nickname, the library is now called Meilahti Campus Library). On both Thursday and Friday morning I had introductions in Literacy Training and in the afternoon I went out. Thursday was the usual, English, and it was our last lesson together. On Friday afternoon I visited the National Library of Finland and got a tour, but unfortunately I wasn´t able to visit the old building and reading room because it´s under construction.

Weekend – I met up with Lisa. We went to grap a bite to eat and then went to her place and watched YouTube videos all night long (Theme of the night: we love Jimmy Fallon 🙂 )

The last couple of days weather hasn´t been great: cloudy with a chance of rain (not to be confused with the movie „cloudy with a chance of meatballs„. That movie, compared to the weather, is awesome)

Usually I don´t let the weather influence my attitude or my activities but this week after work I went straight home, did my chores and stayed in. It has been a sad couple of days.

The reason I mention my lethargy is the changed situation. Today I was awakened by warm rays of sunlight touching my snoozing face. This made the day instinctively a good one and I feel my energy coming back. And there is nothing better to start a day with than the sun behind a blue sky and Mando Diao´s `Song for Aberdeen` blasting in your ear. Lets hope the sun keeps us company a little longer!

Tuesday – We worked with Camtasia on Tutorial Videos almost all day long. I also got the new task of collecting links of Open Access pages and putting them into a wiki. Yay work!

Wednesday – I started out with researching for Open Access pages of different Universities. It´s harder to find these little buggers than I thought, they hide their trail pretty well… and google isn´t much of an help either. But no worries, that´s not an obstacle for a research Pro like me!

Other than that I just worked a little on Sippola and did my English homework.

I also had a seminar on ´Networking – Strategic Theme of the Year: Networking Competencies´. Sounds all fancy and I was pretty excited to attend hoping it would help me in my current situation as well as in the future but in the end it wasn´t that helpful, at least not for me. I thought it was some general information on how-to and what-to-do but it seemed to be specifically laid out for researchers who are trying to form a competent team for their studies…so nothing for me to see there. In the end it was still interesting and I got some good insight on how human interaction works in general. One attendee just said that it comes down to being open and not judgmental (judgmental in the sense of thinking you know exactly what your opposite is trying to say and interrupting them instead of letting them talk). Listening, processing and then responding, that´s the key.

Thursday – Well as said, SUN SUN SUN! But I also went to work 🙂

In the morning I worked a little bit more on the Open-Access-wiki and then went to Lunch with Heli and Tuija to Gardenia, a `unique tropical garden, a limited joint stock company co-owned by the City of Helsinki and the University of Helsinki`.

It´s only 5 minutes from the library and it was good to go on a walk after sitting in front of the Computer for so long (and, I can´t stress this enough, to enjoy the sun!). There I tried a sip of Kotikalja which translates to home-made beer (Kotikalja = a traditional fermented, home-made, weak table drink made of malt and sugar). It wasn´t my taste but it´s always good to try out new things. Also, don´t worry, there isn´t any alcohol in it (who do you think I am, drinking on the job…).

In the afternoon I went to my English class and OF COURSE I forgot to bring my homework. I´ve such a sieve as a brain…

Afterwards I used the sun and took a walk around Lammassaari again (I love that place). I only had short time left because sun sets here around 16:30 by now but I had the most beautiful light.

I know, I know, you need some proof that there really was some sun here in the far dark north. Enjoy my glee: